Rouba Shoujo (Old Woman Girl, 老婆少女), 1996, Hino, Hideshi, Suspiria

STORY: 6

Meet a lot of school students, through different short stories, as they are confronted with supernatural events. Ghosts and monsters are here to make your school days more exciting.. and deadly!

ART: 7

Cute little girls with big eyes are getting through horrific situation, a classic contrast in Japanese horror comics that is well executed.

POLITICAL POTENTIAL: 6

Nothing very deep here, but despite the horror, there is more benevolence than you would expect.

FEMINISM: 6

For an horror tittle, there’s already a good point for not torturing girls in an arousing way as is too often the case in the genre.

There is one story about an abusive mother, that breaks the sanity of her son. That mad mother/broken son is a recurring sexist trope in media, that is clearly less forgiving towards abusive parents when they are women: their kids are often serial killers or mad people. When the abusive parent is a man, the abuse is more often depicted as a painful challenge that the kid can overcome to grow stronger.

The longest story in this title is about beauty, youth and a group of school friends. While betrayal and jealousy between girls usually comes with that type of story, I was pleasantly surprised to see the group holding strong and staying empathetic.

CONCLUSION: 6

A simple volume of short horror stories that are easy to read.